Mirror, Mirror on the wall
by unavoidable-k
Summary: There is a legend of a mirror, which will reflect what a person really thinks of themselves. When the twins learn that it might exist, they set out to find it, along with the rest. They just don't count on the fact that it might have horrible effects, or that most insecure of their group happens to be their leader. Slight 1x2.
In books, there was a legend of a mirror that would show a person what they really thought of themselves.

The twins had read about it in one of their books and, once everyone was back and safe in the library, took the time to show them about the mirror. It allegedly reflected the true thoughts of a person, no matter how dark. The twins found it fascinating and one day hoped to find the mirror, or at least a shard of it. It was a legend among legends and as unbelievable as it sounded, many people had come in contact of the mirror.

Unfortunately, they only had the one book that contained only a tiny section on the mirror but they didn't lose hope. It wasn't like they were desperate to look into the reflective void, they supposed they'd just see themselves, but it would be exciting nonetheless to find an actual legend.

As usual, there was a variety of enthusiasm amongst the other stitchpunks. The most exciteable ones being Nine, Two and Five. Six, Eight and Seven weren't particularly bothered but found it interesting nonetheless and One just didn't care. They were determined to take a little trip out and find it one day. It did seem rather unrealistic, what with the little information they possessed, but fate seemed to be smiling down at them one day in June.

"Three, Four! Come have a look what we found!"

The voice of their little saviour, Nine, called to them from the door to the library. They shot up from whatever they were doing and scampered towards him. They loved going through whatever their little scout party brought back, and Five always made sure to bring back a little something for them.

Only this time is wasn't little. It was big and book-sized.

Funnily enough, it was a book. It had a coarse leather cover and thin yellowed paper that showed age; each page covered in scribbles. It was a book they hadn't read before so they immediately tore through the pages, cataloguing anything and everything.

It actually took a couple of seconds for them to realise the subject of the book. They were so busy trying to catalogue everything that it slipped them by. On the top of the first page in big, calligraphic letters read:

'The Void; The window into the depths of the soul'

They couldn't even register excitement, or happiness, or anything for that matter. They stood, mouths agape and optics wide. They didn't even notice Nine and Two approach, both carrying things they'd found on the trip. The twins looked between Nine, Five, Two and the book, before jumping for joy. They'd only gone and found them an entire book on the mirror and, not only that, it had been written by a human who had actually come into contact with the actual thing.

He'd written pages and pages of what he saw in the mirror, where he found it, how it affected him after and everything he could think of. The twins found every word amazing and was excited to share their findings with the group. Especially since they found the best part in the book. It read as such...

"I managed to find about half of the original mirror in an old antique shop in London and I took it back home with me. It rested in the cellar for a very long time after the first time I looked into it. Must've been about five years later when I went back to check it out again. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite prepared for what awaited me, despite having seen it before, and I dropped the blasted thing. Smashed about half of what I had.

After the Chancellor declared war with our neighbouring countries, things became tense. Once he introduced the machines which would be fighting for us, I felt I should evacuate. I can't stay so close to such terrifying war machines. I'm taking the unshattered piece with me, for reasons even I don't understand. I'm deciding to leave my journal here, in my home. It may be ruined by the war by the time somebody finds it, but if not then I hope someone will find my journal of some use."

The twins were eternally grateful to the author of the journal. His journal was maybe one of the most useful things they had ever found and they thanked whatever surpreme being that was running this show that the journal had survived the war. And if the journal was here, that means the author of said journal lived here in this very town. And if that was true, then they might have a chance of finding at least a shard of the ominous mirror.

"So you think there's still remains of the mirror around here?" Nine asked, just to clarify. The twins nodded in unison. Nine cracked a smile. "Sounds like an adventure. I'll come with you!" He said, flipping through some of the pages in the journal. He wasn't really reading it though. "What about you guys?" He asked, not taking his eyes off the page.

"Five and I would be delighted to come along!" Two offered. Five nodded in agreement before chipping in, "I remember the house we picked the journal up from so I can lead you there." The twins nodded excitedly, very pleased with the enthuasiasm of their friends. Seven snuck up and put an arm around each twins shoulder, before pulling them close.

"I'm not letting you go out on your own. I'm coming with." She announced, pulling her helmet over her face. Three shot her a look that said 'We wouldn't have it any other way.' The small group turned to face the rest of the stitchpunks.

"What about the rest of you? Are you coming with us to find the mirror?"

Six shrugged and nodded and Eight had the same reaction. Neither were particularly bothered, though Six didn't like being left alone. "Don't know what else is crawling out there." Eight muttered, hauling his scissor blade up and over his shoulder. "Might as well come along. Are we going now?"

"Well now's a good as time as any. It's early morning so it'll be evening by the time we get back. The house isn't far." Five piped up, pulling his bag onto his back. "And everyone's coming too..." Two continued, "We didn't see anything when we went out yesterday so there's a good chance the area is still okay for now. There's nothing to worry about but it wouldn't hurt to keep our guard up." He said, thinking rather deeply. His thoughtful frown disappeared and was replaced with a smile.

"So we're ready to go? Then let's set out."

"I'm not going."

The stitchpunks stared at One in surprise, which was a little bit silly considering One refused everything. The twins shot him a disappointed pout (maybe it was possible to guilt him into coming along) but One didn't budge. His face held a grim expression and by his stance, he was determined to stay in the Sanctuary.

It was kind of an unwritten rule that nobody should be left alone in the sanctuary, lest something were to attack and they were incapable of defending themselves. That was why One's refusal to come with them made things difficult.

"If you don't wanna come, I can stay here with ya. I don't mind." Eight suggested. "Well that sounds okay. If you're sure you want to stay." Two said, unsurely. Eight shrugged in response.

"I'm not going and neither are the rest of you. The legend is completely false. There's no way it's really true. We're not going."

They hadn't heard such a forceful command since before the machine was destroyed. Usually, One was a little more lax when it came to letting the group roam around outside. He was still wary of any kind of danger but put his faith in Eight and Seven, thus allowing them to spend more time outside.

This was a little sudden though. His unreasonable commands were shot down by Seven until he finally gave in, so this was unusual. Normally, he wouldn't have a problem letting a large group go out and have himself and Eight stay in the Sanctuary, but he seemed to be insistant that the others were not leaving. The first one to jump to defenses was Seven, as she does.

"Why can't we go out? We're in a group aren't we? Eight can stay here with you, so there's no problem. And so what if it's not real? It'll just be a bit of fun." She said, irritably. One's face twisted into a scowl. "Because it's not safe. Even if it were real, that mirror that those two are chasing after is more trouble than it's worth. It's said to have horrible effects on people and, if it actually turns out to exist, I'm not letting it affect anybody here."

Seven took a step forward, obviously preparing for some kind of verbal attack, before Two stepped between the two. Both stitchpunks were growing increasingly angry and he had to do something before it got out of control. He raised his hands defensively.

"I admit, One, that there is a chance that it will have a horrible effect on one of us, but it's possible that is might not. It might not even affect stitchpunks in any way; we just don't know. The twins have been wanting to find the mirror for quite a long time now and you can't just tell them 'no' when they're so close." He reasoned. The twins put on an adorable disappointed face for emphasis.

One watched the group carefully before huffing and reluctantly following behind them. "Fine, but if one of you manages to fall into an eternal cycle of neverending torment, don't come crying to me." He sneered. Two chuckled dryly. "Yes, and you'll be carving 'I told you so' on our headstones as well." He commented. One didn't look impressed.

Despite minor grumblings, the trip went quite smoothly. As Two and Five had said, it was unlikely they were to run into any beasts today and the house wasn't too far so if they were to run into anything dangerous, it wouldn't be too far away from the library. Not to mention they had Seven and Eight so they were pretty much safe.

* * *

The house where the journal was found was one of the few houses that had remained somewhat intact after the war. Only a section of the roof was missing and the walls had only a couple of large cracks running through them. Despite the good condition of the houses structure, it seemed the interior was in poor shape due to the owners negligence. There were countless spillages in the kitchen, the sofa in the front room was old and dilapidated and the wallpaper was peeling. Clearly, the owner didn't spend a lot of time here and never bothered to tidy up either. It was hardly a problem. The only room they really had business in was the cellar and anything else they may find was merely a bonus.

Once they'd gotten into the house, the twins made a beeline for the cellar immediately. Everyone else slowly followed behind, checking out other things along the way. Since the owner had clearly spent no time here, there wasn't much to be salvaged.

The cellar seemed to be the only room that the owner had ever spent time in. The small lantern on the table against the far wall showed signs of use; black spots where the flames had licked against the glass and a wax covered candle nub. There was an old bookshelf in the far corner, packed with all kinds of old-looking books. Most of them had been torn apart and the spines ripped from the pages but they were all perfectly legible.

The most eye-catching thing in the room was a big, circular patch on the right wall. It was the kind of strange discolouration you'd get if you moved an object that had been settled for a long time; the lack of dust. Well, it was still dusty but compared to the dirt covering the rest of the furniture, it was fairly clean. Below the spot was a pool of red satin fabric. Enough to cover a good half of the wall. The twins suspected it was used to cover whatever had been resting in that spot on the wall.

Nestled in the fabric, were several decent sized shards of glass. It shimmered in the light of the matchstick Three was holding. Four sprinted over to where Three was standing and immediately caught sight of the shards. She casually picked up a shard and inspected it carefully, cataloguing it. She noticed it wasn't just a shard of glass.

It was a shard from a mirror.

This was it! This was what they had been looking for! She couldn't stop her mouth from dropping open in surprise. She waved the mirror piece in front of her sisters face so fast she could barely see it. Once she realised what her sister had found, she let out a silent yell of delight. They found it!

Their first instinct was to look into the mirror shard, see what they could see. They waited a good three minutes but nothing seemed to change. It was still their wide and almost unblinking optics reflected in the mirror. It wasn't working.

Was it really just a myth?

They felt a surge of disappointment, which was quickly replaced by a feeling resembling a heart attack. There was a heavy feeling in their guts as their reflection seemed to...move. They blinked rapidly, in case it was just some sort of mirage or their optics playing tricks on them. But it wasn't.

The image of Three reflected in the mirror...waved at them?

They merely watched blankly, as the mirror showed them Four putting her arm around Three's shoulders and waving her hand, both smiling widely. This was incredible to say the least. Despite their frozen stances, Three managed to lift a shaky hand and wave back, but that was it. They were stuck, staring at their moving reflections in the magical mirror.

They were interrupted by footsteps behind them. Apparently, the others couldn't find anything else of use and had made their way downstairs into the cellar. Five spotted them and approached them, staring at the shard in their hands. He seemed to pale.

"That...that's not a shard of the mirror, is it?" He asked, quite fearfully. It was one thing researching a legend but coming into contact with one was something else. Their wide optics answered for them and he watched the mirror shard cautiously.

"What's in it? Is it doing anything?" He asked, taking a peek. The twins thrust the mirror shard into his hands and egged him on to look at it. He reluctantly stared at him reflection, feeling slightly relieved when it didn't do anything...weird.

The moment the thought crossed his mind, his reflection looked away shyly. He seemed to refuse to make eye contact, which was worrying. After a few minutes, Mirror Five looked up at him, unsurely, before walking away and disappearing. Five wanted to call out and tell him it was okay but then he'd be literally talking to a mirror and that was silly.

"It disappeared!" He said suddenly. The twins took the mirror shard from him and looked into it again, only to see their familiar reflections.

"What's disappeared?"

Five jumped nearly a foot into the air, spinning around to see Two, Nine and Seven. He stuttered for a moment, trying to think of an explanation that made sense. Nothing sprung to mind so he settled for "My reflection disappeared." It went just as well as he thought it would go.

"That's impossible! A reflection can't just disappear! Unless it really is some sort of magical mirror..." Two seemed to ramble on after this until the mirror was passed to him. He watched the shard closely, waiting for some sign of his reflection to move.

And move it did.

His reflection merely crossed his arms, looking down at his feet. It was a similar reaction to Five's reflection. He looked rather uncomfortable, glancing back at Two. Two wasn't sure how to react to his awkward-looking reflection, so he waved in a friendly manner, in a hope to...cheer his reflection up? It sounded odd but it was literally a magical mirror so at this point, anything was possible.

The reflection gave a weak smile, before shuffling away and disappearing, just as Five's had done. He gave the shard back to the twins, feeling a tiny bit disturbed. "How...odd. Mine disappeared just as you said yours did." He said, quietly. It was a little bit spooky, he had to admit. "Did yours do that as well?" He asked the twins. They shook their heads simultaeneously.

"Here, Seven, why don't you have a look?"

Seven looked at the shard with great suspicion, before reluctantly taking it. Naturally, she didn't believe in strange magical things or illusions but it wouldn't hurt to try.

It looked fairly normal until it gave her a smile. It was weird though. It wasn't a warm smile. It seemed more like a sarcastic smile. They stared at each other for what felt like a very long time, before Mirror Seven raised her hand, blowing onto the mirrors surface and writing something out.

'You can become better'

Seven felt almost embarrassed. Her reflection seemed to be criticising her and it was like she was judging her. She didn't want to show the others so she handed the mirror back to the twins. They watched her reaction carefully, obviously wanting to know what she saw.

"She told me I can become better. That's it." She said flatly. "I feel like I just got lectured." She sighed. Nine chuckled, putting an arm around her. "I don't think she was trying to be mean, Seven. I think she just meant you can always become a better protector if you work at it." He explained. Seven smiled just a fraction. "I know that, but being told by...I guess myself...I guess it feels like I'm not good enough to begin with." She said, quite seriously.

The twins practically jumped onto her at that point, sensing she felt a little upset by this, and smothered her with hugs. "Hey, you've defended us countless times. Don't go feeling like you're not good enough, okay?" Five patted her back, and turned to Two, waiting to hear what he would say.

He didn't look like he was listening though. He was staring at the floor, deep in thought. A frown was etched on his face and it promptly disappeared when Five shook his shoulder. "Are you alright?" He asked, worriedly. Two nodded but his gaze was quite vacant.

"Remember what the twins told us, about the mirror? They said that it would show a person just what they thought of themselves. Well I'm sure it's a little more than that, but that appears to be the gist of it." He explained. Five nodded. "Doesn't that explain the reflections reactions?" The two watched the small group talk amongst themselves, as One and Eight approached, with Six trailing behind.

"It's not hard to figure out that Seven always wants to become stronger as a person. When she fails to protect someone, her natural reaction is to assume that she's not good enough. I think that mirror reflected just how she felt, in the form of...herself."

They rejoined the group, watching in fearful anticipation as Nine took his turn. He watched the mirror carefully, but his face turned to confusion. "What is it, Nine?" Seven peered over his shoulder.

His mirror figure was stood a way away, facing in the opposite direction. He shifted his head to the side, as if to get a glimpse of Nine, before turning away. He didn't look happy. Nine himself looked a bit...scared. He shoved the shard back to the twins and didn't say a word on it. Two and Five glanced at each other, concern in their eyes.

"Is this it then?"

Six picked up a different shard and inspected it, trying not to get ink on it. The last stitchpunk they wanted look into a mirror of insecurities was Six, but none of them could bring themselves to say anything. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad.

"See anything, Six?"

"As if he could. I'm telling you, it's not real."

"It's...just me, I guess." He mumbled. "It's all dark though...I can barely see...Uwah!" He gave a sudden cry, dropping the shard as a black liquid erupted from it. It covered the entirety of his legs and most of his hands, but it didn't seem to stain, so it wasn't ink. Five attempted to help Six brush off most of the liquid while Eight picked up the shard, which was now perfectly clean.

"Eight, put that down! You don't know what it might do!" One demanded, angrily. He glared at the offending puddle of black on the floor. Six, who managed to wipe off most of the black, piped up. "That was weird."

"Just what did you see, Six?" Five asked, trying to not step in the puddle. "Well, it was just me at first. Then the mirror started going blacker and the me in the mirror looked real scared. There were shadows all along that wall there." He said, pointing at the wall behind him. He seemed rather unfazed by what he had seen, and Five wondered just what that meant. It was by far the most curious thing to happen.

There was a sudden crack, followed by the tinkling of glass hitting the floor.

"What did you do?!"

Eight looked just as surprised as everyone else; unable to say a coherent word. He took a moment to calm down before explaining himself.

"I dunno. It didn't do anything but then it punched the mirror and it broke." He stated, flatly. "What do you mean, punched the mirror? What are you talking about?" One demanded. Eight raised his hands defensively. "I'm tellin' you! The thing, the reflection, just lashed out at the mirror and it broke!" He said, becoming increasingly freaked out by the turn of events.

"It can do that? It didn't do that for the rest of us." Nine voiced, looking around at his friends. "The weirdest thing to happen was just that the reflection disappeared." They all nodded slowly, trying to register what just happened.

"Well I think we've established that this is the real mirror, which is exciting!" This was Two's attempt to lift the mood, but even he sounded unsure of himself. The twins wondered just what kind of trouble they'd gotten everyone into.

"It's all in the mirror right? It's not like it can hurt us." Six murmured. All optics were on him, silently asking for an explanation. "It's just a reflection. I guess I can damage the mirror, but there's no way it could really harm us."

"Six is right, it's just a reflection." Nine agreed, reassuringly. "The worst it can do is break the mirror. And even then, it was only Eight's reflection. He turned to One with a cheeky smile. "Here, One," He said, brandishing the shard that the twins had found, "You're the only one who hasn't had a look. Why don't you have a go?"

"No." He replied simply. Almost forcefully.

Nine twirled the mirror shard around in his fingers, his face showed disappointment. "C'mon, what's the worst that could happen?" He asked. One raised a brow. "You need me to answer that for you? Are you an idiot?" He sneered. Nine shrugged. "Guess I walked into that one...Anyway, it really can't be that bad, can it?"

"Stop trying to convince me. I'm not doing it." He crossed his arms, like a child. "Nothing's going to happen anyway so there isn't much point." He pointed out. "I wouldn't say that." Two responded, taking the shard from Nine and approaching One.

"You're the only one of us who hasn't done it." He smiled, shyly, offering the shard to him. "The mirror is something. "This mirror...shows our insecurities through the form of our reflections. I suppose our reflections acted in they we feel about ourselves, if that makes sense, so if you don't want to have a look, that's totally understandable." One glared at Two. "I don't have particularly strong feelings when it comes to myself, so there won't be much happening, I'm afraid. I'm not exactly riddled with insecurites." He told the younger stitchpunk. Two wanted to point out that he didn't believe a word but that wouldn't be such a good idea. Nonetheless, One refused again and to emphasise his refusal, he walked over to the wall to look at something else. Since there wasn't much they could do to convince him, they joined him in exploring the cellar further.

"There's still so many shards around. There are probably a lot more beneath the fabric too..." Five commented, as he felt the soft fabric. Nine lifted up a partion of the fabric to check for more shards. The twins decided they were going to collect them and keep them in the library, much to One's distress. One, himself, was looking up at another vast piece of fabric that was draped over a section of the wall. The twins raced past him, almost knocking him off his feet, as they attacked the fabric.

"Be careful with that! If you tug on it too hard you might break something and it'll land on you." He warned, approaching them. The twins flickered rapidly at each other and One felt rather lost.

"Did you find something?"

Two, Five and Nine had come over after collecting most of the shards of mirror and were curious about the vast amount of fabric covering the wall. "I suppose this was used to cover the mirror. Is there anymore behind it?" Two asked, arms full of broken glass. The twins were debating which way to go about this, but settling on just pulling the fabric aside. One reached out to stop them, only to be met with the familiar image of his reflection.

This was the last thing he wanted to happen.

He was frozen with fear at this point. He couldn't move, his own gaze was piercing. Did he...always look this fierce? That didn't matter right now. What matter was the black liquid that was slowly dripping from the ceiling. Small drips became a long stream of the inky fluid and it seemed to completely cover Mirror One. At this point, he just looked like a shadow.

He was sure someone was saying something behind him and the sound of footsteps meant the others were here too and he wished they weren't. He couldn't hear a thing and everything felt cold from fear. The shadowed reflection moved closer, very slowly. Just inching his way towards him. What was he supposed to do?

He had nothing to worry about, he realised. These reflections couldn't hurt him. They were just reflections! Sure, they managed to break one of the shards but that was the most they could do. He was fine. It was just a scary illusion and this...thing! This thing was not going to hurt him.

That was the last thought that ran through his mind before he felt his breathing become restricted. His optics couldn't even focus quick enough to see what happened but once they had, they locked in on the terrifying sight before him. Two ink black arms had shot out from the mirror and the hands had wrapped themselves around his throat. He quaked where he stood, feeling the grip gradually tighten and slowly lift him from the floor.

There were shouts coming from behind him but he could hardly hear a thing. Large, stomping footsteps were telltale signs that somebody was approaching to attack but the moment they got close, he felt the hands pull him forward at an alarming speed, headfirst into the mirror.

The shard shattered, naturally, upon impact and the hands had released their death grip on his throat, sending him reeling backwards and into the arms of Eight. He couldn't even register what had happened in that instant and he felt like he was about to black out.

He managed to keep himself from passing out, and the terrified yells of the others were slowly becoming louder. It honestly felt like he was submerged underwater and he was slowly drifting to the surface. He snapped out of his state and looked around rather curiously. Where was he again?

He was immediately met with Eight's concerned face.

"You okay, Boss?" He asked, worriedly. One stared at him blankly, before silently nodding. He got to his feet, shaking ever so slightly, only to have the rest of them worrying about him.

"Good Lord, what happened? I thought reflections weren't meant to pass through the mirror?" One had to refrain from making a biting response.

"Do you feel okay? It didn't seem to inflict any other damage other than to your neck. How does it feel?"

"That was scary..."

"I didn't think that would happen..."

"Look, will you all be quiet?! You're giving me a worse headache than I already have. Let's just leave." One said, raising his voice above the noise. Their awkward silence was in agreement and they all decided to head in the direction of the door.

It took three seconds for the twins to practically jump on top of him. He just had to look at their optics to know how they were feeling. They felt guilty for dragging him along, especially when he was the one who ended up getting hurt, despite his warning. It wasn't often his warnings were right, but it happened on occasion. Their wide optics were practically full of tears at this point.

He sighed. He did not want to deal with this right now and frankly, he didn't know how. So he settled for patting them on the head. "It's fine. Let's just return to the sanctuary and forget about it." He was probably trying make himself feel better too. The twins reluctantly accepted his idea, their faces still full of guilt.

Great. Now they were making him feel bad too. He sighed, rather dramatically.

Three was surprised when One barged past, subtly pushing something into her hand as he went. She watched him walk away before looking into her hand.

It was a tiny fragment of the mirror, just a little smaller than her hand. After what had happened, there was no way they were taking the pieces of the mirror with them, but he was letting her take home a shard. Him of all people. She nudged her sister, showing her the shard before shoving it inside her body, amongst the metal that worked to keep her functioning. Hopefully, it wouldn't puncture anything while she was walking.

Meanwhile One was grumbling under his breath at nothing in particular, other than he let her keep a piece of the mirror which could've killed him! He didn't notice Two slink up beside him, smirking.

"What are you smiling at?" He asked, bluntly. Two shrugged. "That was a rather...nice thing to do." He commented. One rolled his optics. "And I can't be nice from time to time?" He responded dryly. "I'm not saying that. It just doesn't happen often, is all."

"Don't get used to it." Two chuckled lightly. "I'll try not to. Anyway, I was wondering...about the reflection in the mirror." He said slowly. He knew he was treading on thin ice here but that didn't stop him from pressing.

"What about it?"

"I thought you said you didn't have insecurites. That you didn't feel strongly about yourself in any way."

"I say a lot of things."

Silence.

"Are you okay?" Two asked, worriedly. One shrugged, rubbing his neck. "I'm fine. After getting your soul ripped straight from your body, nothing really compares." Two wasn't sure if he was joking or not.

"That's not what I meant." He said, quietly.

"I've been better."

Silence again.

"About what happened...before we awoke again." He began, only to be cut off. "I don't want to hear about it. I made mistakes, I know." Two opened his mouth, but couldn't find anything to respond with. He sighed.

"Those mistakes don't matter now. A-And they weren't even mistakes! You were just doing your best to protect everyone! We don't think less of you, One." Two stammered, clearly unsure about how to approach the situation.

One didn't respond. He merely watched the group ahead of them. His mouth was pulled into a line and his face was totally unreadable. Two watched him carefully, before slipping his hand into his.

"We wouldn't be the same without you. And I mean that in a good way. Nobody else could be our leader." He said, softly. One didn't look convinced. "Yes they could, Two. You're just saying that." He grumbled. Two smiled shyly.

"Well I wouldn't be the same without you."

"Is...that so?"

* * *

I was thinking about this for a long time ._.


End file.
